Job 16

1 Job replied [to Eliphaz and the others: ]

But Job answered and said,

2 “I have heard things like that before; all of you, [instead of helping me, ] are only causing me to feel more miserable.

I have heard many such things: poor comforters are ye all.

3 Will your speeches, which are only hot air, never end [RHQ]? Eliphaz, what bothers/irritates you so much that you continue replying to me?

What! is there any reason in vain words? or what will hinder thee from answering?

4 If it were you [three and not I] who were suffering, I could say the things that you are saying; I could make great speeches [to criticize/condemn you], and I could shake my head at you [to ridicule you].

I also will speak as ye [do]: if indeed your soul were in my [soul's] stead, then would I insult you with words, and I would shake my head at you.

5 But, [unlike all of you, ] with what I said [MTY] I would encourage you and try to cause your pain to be less.

And would there were strength in my mouth, and I would not spare the movement of my lips.

6 “But now, if I talk, my pain does not decrease, and if I am silent, my pain still certainly does not [RHQ] go away.

For if I should speak, I shall not feel the pain of my wound: and if I should be silent, how shall I be wounded the less?

7 God has now taken away all my strength, and he has destroyed my family.

But now he has made me weary, and a worn-out fool; and thou hast laid hold of me.

8 He has shriveled me up, and people think that shows that I [am a sinner]. And people see that I am only skin and bones, and they think that proves that I [am guilty].

My falsehood has become a testimony, and has risen up against me: it has confronted me to my face.

9 Because God is very angry with me and hates me, [it is as though he is a wild animal that] [MET] has gnashed his teeth at me because he is my enemy.

In his anger he has cast me down; he has gnashed his teeth upon me: the weapons of his robbers have fallen upon me.

10 People gape/stare at me with their mouths open [to sneer at me]; they have struck me on the face/cheek to ridicule me, and they crowd around me to threaten me.

He has attacked me with the keen glances of his eyes; with his sharp [spear] he has smitten me [down] upon my knees; and they have run upon me with one accord.

11 [It is as though] God has handed me over to ungodly people and turned me over to the wicked [DOU].

For the Lord has delivered me into the hands of unrighteous men, and thrown me upon the ungodly.

12 Previously, I was living peacefully, but he crushed me; [it is as though] he grabbed my neck and smashed me to pieces. [It is as though] [MET] he set me up like a target;

When I was at peace he distracted me: he took me by the hair of the head, and plucked it out: he set me up as a mark.

13 people are surrounding me [and shooting arrows at me]. His arrows pierce my kidneys and cause the bile [from my liver] to spill onto the ground, and God does not pity me at all.

They surrounded me with spears, aiming at my reins: without sparing [me] they poured out my gall upon the ground.

14 [It is as though] [MET] I am a wall that he is breaking through; he rushes at me like [SIM] a soldier [attacking his enemies].

They overthrew me with fall upon fall: they ran upon me in [their] might.

15 [“Because I am mourning, ] I wear pieces of rough cloth that I have sewed together, and I sit [here] in the dirt, very depressed/discouraged.

They sewed sackcloth upon my skin, and my strength has been spent on the ground.

16 My face is red because I have cried very much, and there are dark circles around my eyes.

My belly has been parched with wailing, and darkness is on my eyelids.

17 [All this has happened to me] even though I have not acted violently [toward anyone], and I [always] pray sincerely/honestly [to God].

Yet there was no injustice in my hands, and my prayer is pure.

18 [When I die, ] I want the ground [APO] to [act as though I had been murdered and] cry out against those who killed me, and I do not want anyone to stop me while I am demanding [that God act justly toward] me.

Earth, cover not over the blood of my flesh, and let my cry have no place.

19 But even now, [I know that] there is someone in heaven who will testify for me, and he will say that what I have done is right.

And now, behold, my witness is in heaven, and my advocate is on high.

20 My [three] friends scorn/ridicule me, but my eyes are full of tears [while I cry out] to God.

Let my supplication come to the Lord, and let mine eye weep before him.

21 I pray that [the] one [who knows what I have done] would come to plead with God for me like people plead for their friends.

Oh that a man might plead before the Lord, even [as] the son of man with his neighbor!

22 [I say this because] within a few years [I will die]; I will walk along the [to the grave] from which I will never return.”

But my years are numbered and [their end] come, and I shall go by the way by which I shall not return.